330 REPORT OF OFFICE OP EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



by the board of education as to organization, equipment, course of 

 study, and teachers, it will be reimbursed by the State to the extent 

 of two-thirds of the salary paid the agricultural instructors. The 

 appropriation for carrying on this work was $10,000. 



MINNESOTA. 



The Putnam Act of 1909 was amended by the State legislature in 

 1911 so as to permit 30 schools instead of 10 to receive a State bonus 

 of $2,500 a year for the teaching of agriculture, home economics, and 

 farm mechanics, and appropriating $75,000 for the purpose of car- 

 rying out the amended act. 



The legislature also passed what is known as the Benson-Lee Act, 

 giving $1,000 annually to each of 50 high schools or graded schools 

 maintaining a course in agriculture and a course either in home 

 economics or in manual training. This act is to be administered by 

 rules to be prescribed by the State high-school board, which has laid 

 down the following minimum requirements : The courses to be main- 

 tained throughout the school year; a free winter course of not less 

 than three months to be offered ; instructors to have had training in 

 their respective lines in technical schools ; suitable rooms and equip- 

 ment to be provided; the instructor in agriculture to have a room 

 exclusively for his work and to have not less than a continuous half 

 day for agricultural work; the instructor in agriculture to study 

 local conditions and attend meetings for the purpose of making the 

 acquaintance of farmers; the instruction in agriculture to include 

 textbook work, laboratory courses, special work along some line of 

 local interest, institute work in cooperation with the extension divi- 

 sion of the college of agriculture, and a winter short course; two 

 satisfactory daily periods in an agricultural or industrial subject 

 to count as a credit. 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Under the act of 1910 authorizing county agricultural schools to 

 be established in each county, 21 schools were in operation during 

 the past year. 



NEBRASKA. 



The Fairfield High School has adopted a new method in teaching 

 agriculture. The school board arranged for the class, wath the 

 teacher, to visit a number of farms adjacent to town. The farmer, 

 if he is in the live-stock business, talks to the class, giving a short 

 history of the particular breed of stock he handles and telling why 

 he believes that breed superior to others. He tells of liis method of 

 handling, feeding, and marketing his stock, and gives reasons for the 

 methods employed. Before visiting such a farmer the class gets all 

 the information possible from textbooks and teachers concerning his 



